CARPENTER FEELS THE F.E.A.R.

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John Carpenter saw the new Vivendi Universal video game F.E.A.R. for the first time in a very dark room. And the director who gave the world one of the most frightening movies of all time with HALLOWEEN says it gave him some serious shivers. “The way it looks and plays, this is the scariest game I've ever played,” Carpenter tells Fango during an early-morning (for Carpenter) interview. “I’m a fan of all kinds of games and I’ve played a whole lot of stuff. As much as I can be scared at my age, this scared me.”

Carpenter says that it was this enjoyment of the experience rather than any involvement with it that has brought him out to stump for F.E.A.R., an extremely violent and gory game highlighted by dark psychological elements and a strange little girl who pops up when you least expect it. “F.E.A.R. is basically a first-person shooter,” he says. “But the story and the environment, as well as the way the player controls the central character, are real creepy to me, because it takes place in the here and now rather than in the future.”

Carpenter, who reports that he is “throwing around some ideas” for video games and “pursuing some things” in that arena, will not divulge particulars of those plans (though he has been announced as taking part in the PSYCHOPATH film/game project), but does offer his take on what should go into such a project. “The big thing about horror games is the look,” he says. “The closer a game comes to photographic reality, the scarier it is and the more invested you become in what’s going on. That’s when good horror games get really creepy.”

Having popped up as a doomed character in the video-game version of his classic THE THING, Carpenter laughingly bemoans the fact that he did not come to F.E.A.R. in time to become part of that scenario as well. “This is a great game—it would have been fun to die in it.”

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